


our hands gripping each other tight

by badgerterritory



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: College AU, Gen, my precious angels being happy together as god intended, no angst just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 06:21:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4380575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerterritory/pseuds/badgerterritory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When they saw each other, they were connected. They didn’t realize at first. They gave their hellos, introduced themselves, discovered they were all on the same floor in the same building. None of them, as they went their separate ways, thought it was strange that they could understand each other perfectly, despite most of them speaking different languages. And none of them questioned a turn of fate that brought them close enough to forge a connection without outside influence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	our hands gripping each other tight

**Author's Note:**

> mmmmmmmmmmmm
> 
> i wanted this to be longer but i couldn't really think of a way to make it work. it features a few of my headcanons: namely, that a cluster that gets close enough together doesn't need an older cluster to activate them, because a cluster that's close together has their connection amplified. also nomi is Too Gay For This World
> 
> expect more of my gay children in this au

The college hadn’t been Nomi’s first choice, an unconventional and small school, but it was the most trans-inclusive with the best STEM programs she could afford without her parents paying. And it was far, far away from them, which was definitely a bonus. She stepped onto the campus and

 

Lito was excited when he found out about the university. It was famous for teaching several Hollywood actors, and more than a few that were famous in Mexico. It even had a lot of art classes that Hernando was interested in. They both saved up their money and got scholarships, no easy feat, and they were both accepted. Hand in hand, they walked in and

 

Sun’s father was determined to send her to an American college to get her business degree. She accepted, but on her terms. She would choose the place she went, and she chose a smaller college in a city with some decent places to fight, against her father’s protestations. But when she arrived,

 

Capheus hadn’t honestly expected to get in. He was a poor student from Kenya, and he was applying to a prestigious American school. But he believed in himself, and so did his mother, and he was accepted on a scholarship. He was going to be a doctor! He took a taxi from the airport, marveling at everything about America the whole time, and

 

The university hadn’t been Kala’s idea, not at first. She wanted to go to a university in India, much closer to home than America. But it was a scholarship, one specifically for women in STEM, and her parents insisted it was a great opportunity for her. She relented. America was a strange place compared to home, but she found her way easily enough. When she saw the building, though,

 

Wolfgang didn’t believe in college. Didn’t believe it was for him. What would he even major in? Safe cracking? Somehow, he doubted American schools would carry that class. And besides, there was no way a poor German kid with substandard grades could get into a good American college. But Felix insisted, so eventually Wolfgang applied just to shut him up. He was surprised when he actually got in, not expecting it. He and Felix saved up all they could to get Wolfgang a plane ticket. And then, when he got there,

 

Riley didn’t really have any ideas on what she wanted to do, except “get out of Iceland as quickly as possible” because she couldn’t take it anymore. Everything reminded her of Luna. It had only been a year since her daughter died. She spotted the brochure during a visit to a friend’s house, who had a cousin who went there. She got in easily, and she was out of Iceland as fast as possible. The novelty of America hadn’t yet worn off when she got to her new home and

 

Will had a list of colleges, and he didn’t get into two-thirds of them. Mostly because his father wanted him to pay for it on his own, out of some misguided attempt to raise Will how he was raised. Will got a scholarship and a loan and a part-time job in the area, all before he even moved out there. When he finally saw the college itself,

 

the connection had been building, an itch in the back of the head and then a steady throb. The connection snapped into place when they found each other.

Unintentionally, all eight of them had gravitated toward the same spot in the parking lot. When they saw each other, they were connected. They didn’t realize at first. They gave their hellos, introduced themselves, discovered they were all on the same floor in the same building. None of them, as they went their separate ways, thought it was strange that they could understand each other perfectly, despite most of them speaking different languages. And none of them questioned a turn of fate that brought them close enough to forge a connection without outside influence.

*             *             *

Nomi was in her room when she realized what was happening to her. She’d been having headaches all week, but she chalked that up to something that was probably caused by hormones, or the stress of living with someone very incredibly attractive. She had no idea what region of heaven Amanita fell out of, but it was apparently filled with the most beautiful angels in the universe. Who didn’t know Nomi was trans.

Nomi only realized what was happening when, during a solo study session, she was suddenly down the hall, listening to music. Riley, for her part, didn’t seem surprised to see Nomi at all, simply taking off her headphones, giving her a warm smile and saying, “Hello, Nomi.”

Even without needing to remember the meeting a week earlier, Nomi said, “Hi, Riley.” She sat down heavily on the bed. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know,” Riley said cheerfully. “That boy, Will, he came in here earlier, bumbling and making an adorable fool of himself. And then Capheus, talking about how Sun visited him without being in the room. I think it’s a lovely ability.”

Somehow, the fact that Riley was so calm about it prevented Nomi from freaking out. She settled down and looked around Riley’s room. “If I figure out how to stop doing this, can I come over here? I’m in the middle of studying and it’s getting frustrating.”

“Oh, studying what?”

They were in Nomi’s room, and Riley peered over Nomi’s shoulder at the textbook she was having trouble with. “Biology?”

“Required credit,” Nomi said. “Squishy things have never really been my strong suit. I’m more of a silicon gal.”

Riley glanced, rather deliberately, towards the posters on the wall. Nomi blushed. “First of all, those are my roommate’s, and I meant computers.”

“Ah,” Riley said, still smiling. “Well, that was one of my better subjects. Do you want someone to study with?”

“That might help.” Nomi’s brain was turning to mush. Her studying wasn’t with any urgency, really, but over hours of frustration it had turned into something she intended to do out of spite. “I’m used to getting good grades. No reason to stop that now that I’m in college.”

Riley smiled and disappeared. A moment later, she was in the doorway with her arms full of books and papers. “I was never a very good student. But I always took good notes, so I wasn’t a very bad student, either. I ran into Capheus on the way over, and he asked if he could join. I said yes. I hope you don’t mind.”

“The more the… more miserable.” She shrugged as Riley laughed. “Capheus is…” Nomi said it questioningly, not remembering him.

But then Capheus popped up in the doorway behind Riley, wearing his bright smile. “Me! Hello, Nomi. It’s good to see you again. I invited Sun and Lito. They need help with English. I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’ll be a little crowded,” Nomi said, eyeing the limited space they had. Somehow, she knew the room would be full very shortly.

Sure enough, when Sun showed up it was with Kala in tow, and Lito brought Wolfgang, since they were talking when Lito was invited. And it was only a matter of time before Will showed up, freshly showered after some sort of sports tryouts and wondering what was going on.

Soon, they were all settled in various points around the room. By some unspoken agreement, those who had visited each other didn’t say anything, even to others who’d visited. All of them could feel it thrumming in the air between them, the connection, but so close they were effecting each other emotionally, too, and between Capheus’s steady warmth and Riley’s radiant calm, they were all okay.

They weren’t all studying the same things, they discovered when they talked. Nomi knew exactly what she was doing, shooting straight at a degree to make use of an ill-spent youth. She’d designed her entire college career around her plan to open her own software company. Capheus was the same: He was going to become a doctor, and then he was going to cure every disease he could get his hands on. And Sun was going to get her business degree and work with her father.

But for most of the others, plans were murkier. Kala had a fiancé she’d met at school, who she’d dated for years before he proposed. His father had a pharmaceutical company, and Kala thought she wanted to work there. Will was thinking about becoming a cop because he wanted to help people, and try to fix some of the problems in the system. Wolfgang had no idea what he was going to do. His father was a criminal. His family were criminals. He’d expected to be the same, until his friend pressured him to apply to a college he saw a crumpled, dirty brochure for. Lito hadn’t really thought past ‘go to cool college, become famous telenovela actor’.

Riley had no real plans, either. She thought it might be nice to do something with music. She spoke very little about what brought her to America, and they didn’t ask, sensing the pain behind the question.

Eventually, the talk turned to partners. It took very little for Nomi to confess her crush on Amanita, as well as the girls in the room. Lito pretended to be hurt that Nomi didn’t find him handsome, and then went on and on about his wonderful, amazing boyfriend until Wolfgang pinched him and said, “Enough, enough. Any more sugar in the air and I’m going to vomit.” Sun said she didn’t really care for romance, guard up until Capheus said he was the same with sex.

“All that squishing and moaning,” he said, making a face. “I don’t know how any of you can stand it.”

“Well,” Will said, the willpower to keep his smile away obvious to all of them, “I don’t know about anyone else here, but there’s usually not much standing involved for me.” Most of them laughed, except for the ones who playfully groaned.

Any pretense of studying was abandoned by that point. They were all curious about their connection and probing it, even if they weren’t talking about it. They were shy about touching, not sure what would happen, and after another half-hour of easy chatting, Nomi found her hand inching closer to Riley’s, and then they were touching.

It was an echo chamber, or a hall of mirrors. Reflecting onto each other, off of each other, into each other, over and over, a cascade into infinity. It eased after a second, and Nomi and Riley were holding hands, the connection even stronger. Nomi could feel everything Riley was feeling. Riley could feel everything Nomi was feeling.

She could even sense some of Riley’s thoughts. Riley was thinking about sisterhood, brotherhood, deep friendships that became family. Riley was thinking about a cute boy and what she wanted to do to him.

“Ah,” Riley said, breaking the spell, her warm fingers pulling away from Nomi’s hand. She instantly missed the contact, and then Nomi noticed what Riley did, and quickly pulled one of her pillows over her lap.

“Nobody talks about that,” a blushing Nomi said to the awestruck room, still feeling the secondhand aftereffects of contact. “Don’t even think it.”

That broke the spell they were under, too. They laughed, and then went back to chatting, but now touching freely, with first contacts noted by soft, quick inhalations and exhalations from the group.

Finally, Amanita came back, and looked at the assembled group with a critical eye, not saying anything. Finally she looked to Nomi and said, “If this is some kind of weird orgy, we need to work out a system. Socks are cliché, but it might work.”

Before Nomi could say anything, Riley nudged her and said in a stage whisper, “That’s Amanita? I can see why you’re so interested in her.” Louder, “I think we should all go get some rest.” Nomi, startled, glanced at the clock. It was nearly midnight. The others all noticed the time as well, and started shuffling out. Lito bumped into his boyfriend just outside the door and they started kissing, so Wolfgang smacked Lito’s ass as he went by, prompting a tirade of Spanish that was cut off by Hernando dragging Lito off.

When they were all gone Amanita said, “Interested in me?”

Nomi fell backwards, sprawling across her bed, and did her best impression of a woman in a coma. Amanita shrugged and started talking about her day like nothing happened, which Nomi was grateful for. Even if she did have a huge crush on Amanita, and Amanita had no idea she was a trans woman, she was a great roommate.

And Nomi had seven people she could share anything with, and she could feel them all, like they were at the ends of a handful of taut strings all wrapped around Nomi. At the end of one, Riley sent her encouraging feelings.

Nomi continued to lay there. She'd figure out how to tell Amanita eventually. But there wasn't a rush.


End file.
